Family feast
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Marinated olives
Makes 2 cups. Serve the oil with bread – a delicious dip!
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- Place the olives, oil, rosemary, thyme, chilies, lemon peel, garlic and fennel in a large saucepan and warm over low heat.
- Transfer to a bowl and marinate overnight at room temperature.
- Remove olives from the oil with a slotted spoon and discard the herbs, reserving the oil. Add the extra thyme to the olives before serving.
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Easy Artichoke Pizzas
Serves 10 - 12 When you are catering for a crowd, a little ‘cheating’ is perfectly acceptable! Onions can be prepared a day ahead.
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- Heat oil in pan, add onions, cook, stirring, until soft. Drain on absorbent paper.
- Spread pizza bases with tomato paste, top with cheddar cheese, onions, capsicums, artichokes, olives, basil, extra cheddar cheese and parmesan cheese.
- Bake in a hot oven about 20 minutes or until bases are crisp and tops are lightly browned.
- Cut into wedges to serve.
- Cut lamb into thin strips. Pound strips lightly to flatten, cut into 4 cm lengths. Thread strips onto 30 small skewers, about 13 cm long. Place kebabs in a shallow dish; pour over combined oil, juice, garlic, herbs, pepper and mustard. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
- Drain lamb and reserve marinade. Heat extra oil in a large pan, add kebabs in batches, cook over high heat until lamb is browned and just tender; remove kebabs from pan. Add reserved marinade to pan and bring to the boil. Pour over kebabs – serve warm or cold.
- Decorate platter with sliced chilli, capsicums cherry tomatoes.
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Miniature Mozzarella and Tomato Puff Pastry Pies
This recipe makes 6 pies. Prepare as many as you need in advance, store them in the fridge, then bake them as your guests arrive.
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- Preheat the oven to 200° and line a baking tray.
- Roll out the pastry and use a cookie cutter (approx. 10cm in diameter) to cut six circles out of the pastry. Lay them on the baking tray.
- Crack the egg into a small bowl and lightly beat with a fork, then use a pastry brush to glaze the top of the pastry circles with egg.
- Cut six more circles of pastry and lay them on top of the first set. This will make sure that the pastries rise up nicely when they cook.
- Spoon a little crème fraiche on to each pastry round.
- Drain the tinned tomatoes, roughly chop and add them on top of crème fraiche.
- Roughly chop the mozzarella and add that too, being careful to leave a 1-2cm wide clear margin around the edges of the pastry.
- Brush the edges with a little egg, and carefully lay a circle on top, press down the edges to seal the pie. For a decorative touch, do this with the prongs of a fork to help seal it really well.
- Glaze the top of the pies with egg and set in the oven to bake for 25-30 mins or until golden brown.
- Best served straight from the oven - warn your guests the mixture inside will be piping hot!
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Smoked Ham with Pomegranate Molasses, Black Pepper and Mustard Glaze
Don’t reserve a ham for once a year – it’s the ideal family feast centrepiece. Pomegranate molasses is the key to this recipe. It adds a sweet tart flavour rather than the sweet glazes often found on Christmas hams. Serve the meat with Dijon mustard, cornichons and extra glaze as condiments for a nice rustic presentation. This recipe will serve 6 – 8. For a larger crowd, you will need a whole ham as part of your buffet.
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- Let ham come to room temperature 1 hour before cooking. Preheat oven to 160°C.
- Make the glaze: Combine pomegranate molasses, 1/4 cup mustard, whiskey, pepper, allspice and salt in a bowl and mix to blend well.
- Place ham, fat side up, in a foil lined roasting pan. Score fat in a cross-hatch pattern at 1-2" intervals without incising the meat.
- Generously baste the ham with the glaze. Bake in oven, basting occasionally, until internal temperature of the ham is around 50°C. (about 5 minutes per kilo or to be sure, use a meat thermometer). The ham should be deep golden brown and crusty at this time. If not, increase heat to 230°C. and continue to bake for a few minutes, while keeping an eye on the ham so it doesn't burn.
- Remove from oven and transfer to cutting board. Let rest 20 minutes before carving.
- Transfer remaining basting sauce to a small saucepan and simmer briefly, brushing down the sides, to heat through and burn off alcohol.
- Slice ham and serve with Dijon mustard, cornichons and basting sauce as condiments on the side.
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Baked Lemon and Raspberry Tart
Serves 12. Easy and delicious. If you want to save time, use a commercially prepared sweet pie crust for this recipe. Sweet Pastry
Filling
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- To make pastry: place flour, butter and icing sugar in a food processor and process until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water and egg yolk and process until mixture forms a dough. Mould into a flat shape, wrap in plastic film and chill for 30 minutes. (This recipe makes about twice as much dough as needed – freeze the remainder for another time).
- Roll the pastry into a 3mm thickness. Line a 24cm fluted flan tin. Chill pastry case for 30 minutes in the freezer. Press a sheet of foil or baking paper over the pastry and into the corners. Fill the foil with flour, rice or pastry weights and bake in a preheated 180°C oven for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and rice and continue cooking until the pastry is light brown.
- To make the filling: combine the eggs, sugar and grated lemon rind, add the juice and cream (don’t beat the mixture too much), then strain.
- Place the baked pastry shell on a baking tray in the oven and scatter the raspberries over. Carefully fill with the lemon mixture. Bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes or until the filling is still slightly runny in the centre. Remove from oven.
